If Qatar steps in with a heavy aid effort in Lebanon, the conspiracy theory machines are bound to go into overdrive.
Rafik Hariri's son Saad says his family accepts the UN-backed tribunal's verdict but expects Hezbollah to pay a price. The ruling comes some 15 years after the Lebanese prime minister's assassination.
Just as the explosion has permanently altered Beirut’s urban landscape, so has it made clear the monumental shifts in the country’s political dynamics.
The port explosion has since forced Lebanon's government to resign, giving rise to popular resentment towards the country's political elite.
Protests continue in Lebanon despite the resignation of the government following the massive Beirut explosion. The protesters now demand a complete change to a system of power that has long gone unchallenged.
Denying accusations that it had been storing arms at the Beirut port, Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement says the army should lead such a probe because it is "trusted" by all.
In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has called Tuesday's explosion "an exceptional event" that required unity and calm.
Beirut is a city in shock but its residents are clear-eyed about who they see as the culprit behind the disaster at the port.
Whatever the immediate cause, the reason for the deadly explosion in Beirut is criminal neglect and a rotten system built and maintained by the country’s political elite.
Lebanese Premier Hassan Diab in his government's first official response to Monday's shelling said "Israel has once again violated Lebanon's sovereignty ... in a dangerous military escalation".
Tensions are high after the Israeli killing of Hezbollah members in Syria and reports of an attempted assault on Israeli positions near the Lebanese border.
An Israeli official and Lebanese sources have said Hezbollah carried out an operation along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier but the Shia armed group has denied it had done so.
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